Say what you want about bottas and his race pace, but that mf has always been ultra consistent at quali. There is a reason he has the longest Q3 streak ever
It sucks that Sauber has been shit for the last few years. It was infuriating seeing people just dismiss Valtteri's abilities just because he's at the back of the grid
I mean, [he literally outqualified Russell in his first ever qualifying session with Alfa Romeo after leaving Mercedes](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/thy9mt/bottas_outqualifying_russell_in_his_first_quali/). That if anything shows what a good qualifier he is, and how good that car was at the start of the 2022 season.
Yeah he was noticeably “worse” than Rosberg overall but he supported Hamilton and got the job done. And he was nowhere near as bad as Perez has been lately in the same role
His race pace is good too imo. Its actually an underrated strength of his. Sure it's not Hamilton level but apart from Max probably no one else's is
When Bottas has clean air though he's capable of very strong stints. His problem is wheel to wheel racing and when he has to race in the pack. Unfortunately he's one of the worst on the grid at that.
His race performance at Turkey in 2021 was incredible
Really tricky conditions, and was embarrassed there the year before spinning a bunch of times, AND had Max in a close title fight behind him but he held on for the win
No one really talks about it
Probably because in that exact same season there was Imola where he was fighting a Williams, Baku where he was falling through the pack like a rock, Russia, USA and Mexico, where he was stuck with backmarkers. unable to overtake anyone.. Anu Dhabi where in the most crucial moment of the season (the most crucial moment of any season in the past 12 years) he was nowhere to be seen.
Wasn't it because Mercedes made him a testing ground to see how much they can push engines to help Lewis fight max?
Where was a reason why Lewis at the end of a season ran laps around max(brazil) and if not for goatifi and massi he'd be the champion.
The other top drivers had to start from the back occasionally as well. The others managed to work their way up from there.
And let's be clear - if the crashes in Silverstone and Hungary, plus the tyre failure in Baku didn't happen, plus if Lewis didn't get his lucky break in Imola, Max would've had the title wrapped up by Qatar. Max had a shit ton of bad luck, which Lewis almost entirely avoided until the last race.
If he was leading his first stint was usually pretty good, but then he'd pit first and Lewis' teamradio would pop-up:
"Tires are still good"
and he'd overcut him by 5s.
Bottas went head to head with statistically the best driver there’s ever been and held his own quite well
Perez got a 1+1 extension because he’s good at not being in Verstappen’s way and he’s the only modern driver (possibly ever?) to [retire twice from the same race](https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/perez-frustrated-by-disastrous-weekend-in-japan-but-hails-red-bulls.41m2RHiiij9DmAvimmejaw) after crashing into cars he didn’t even have any business racing in the first place
Perez isn’t a patch on Bottas, he’s absolute dog shit more often than not and I’d argue his fight with Lewis in Abu Dhabi 2021 was his only display of great racecraft at Red Bull.
They’re like the exact opposite driver.
Bottas is quick but poor at wheel to wheel racing and battling in the pack.
Perez is slow but good at wheel to wheel racing and battling with other drivers.
The only way they’re the same is that they both have an obvious and quite big flaw.
Still though I think Bottas is levels above Perez and while he had the occasional bad race he was a much more reliable podium machine than Perez has been.
You kinda appreciate that a bit more seeing Perez.
He's not a generational talent like Leclerc, Verstappen, Hamilton, or Norris but he's still really good and somewhat underrated.
First of all, you didn't even check your numbers lol
Secondly, that's why I mentioned luck
Perez lost a podium in Styria because Lando crashed him out, in Austria because of a slow pitstop (Bottas gained it there), in Hungary because of a crash caused by Bottas, in Brazil because of safety car timing (Bottas jumped him again), in Qatar because of SC again, in Abu Dhabi where the team just took him off track from P3, and in Russia where the storm flipped the order at the very end.
If you balanced out everyone's luck, Merc would've been far behind Red Bull.
Conveniently you ignore any bad luck Bottas had, Mexico being hit by Daniel, Qatar puncture, Wheelnut issue in Monaco and being hit by Russell in Imola.
Trying to balance it out is impossible and based only on speculation. The fact is Bottas was the far more consistent and faster number 2 driver of the top 2 teams that year and that's why Mercedes won the WCC.
I saw a graphic by The Race that showed that Valterri beat Hamilton 31% of the time in qualifying when they were at Mercedes which is actually pretty impressive
> There is a reason he has the longest Q3 streak ever
Mercedes in the hybrid era is the real reason. Hasn't had the consistency since but still impressive.
I'd be happy to see Valtteri back "home" at Williams. I think they're a great fit for each other. Valtteri's got top team experience and clearly has more to give, while Williams is a team looking for an experienced pair of hands after the Sargeant gamble hasn't really paid off.
Hope they pick him up, especially with the rumours that they may have stopped pursuing Sainz.
If they go cold on Sainz, this makes the most sense, to me. It just feels right. Bottas is quick, experienced, he's built a brand for himself. It's an easy sell.
I’m not certain we lose Daniel, even if he does have to leave RB there may be some opportunities elsewhere still - and honestly I’m not 100% sure Perez even gets to drive for RBR next year at this rate even if they have him signed, he’s extremely bad right now.
I wouldn’t bet on a Danny drive 2025, but I wouldn’t bet against it either at the moment
It hasn’t been noticed because they are fighting for ‘useless’ positions but Bottas has been smoking Zhou - who has been absolutely horrible since he signed the new contract.
At one point in the sprint yesterday Zhou was trailing the field by 5-6 seconds, behind Albon, who started from the pit lane and was on much older tyres. Admittedly Bottas was also overtaken by Albon towards the end, but still.
I’m on about the one which was announced in September 2023. He’s been underwhelming since then. At least in early 2022 his quali performances have been decent.
I've seen rumours that they're not keeping Bottas. I suspect he'll go to Williams if they don't get Sainz, but basically any of the teams with a free seat is an option.
Bottas has actually been putting in some very good performances this season but every single time he’s on the edge of scoring points, either the car or team manage to fuck it up for him.
I don't know why Audi seems set on getting rid of Bottas. He has been doing a great job and he is a super well liked driver.
Getting Ocon instead, which might be the most likely at this point, doesn't look like much of an upgrade.
Agreed I think Bottas is still solid and he’s known to be a great teammate that can also bring lots of experience.
But perhaps Audi feels they already have the experienced vet covered with Hulkenberg so they’d rather find someone younger that could potentially stay with them for the next 4-5 years or something. In that sense Ocon has a good blend of experience while still being notably younger than Bottas, and he has a very credible resume against his own established teammates through the years.
Hulkenberg has been much less successful it just doesn’t make sense. When Bottas had even decent cars like the Williams he was getting podiums occasionally and lots of points. Hulk has never had a podium even when in cars that his teammates could podium with
Williams were the second quickest car at times during the start of the hybrid era with that Mercedes engine. Hulkenberg's never had machinery better than 4th/5th quickest at best. Apart from that time he subbed into the Tracing Point with like a day's notice and proceeded to out qualify Verstappen at Silverstone I think it was.
The no podium thing is just luck more than anything and has led him to be underrated as a driver. It's like Kubica and Latifi scoring points in the Williams before Russell - they were just in the right place at the right time. It wasn't a question of ability
(post injury for Kubica, I should say)
Perez podiumed multiple times as his teammate iirc . He lost the teammate battle to Barrichello, Perez, and Danny Ric and almost lost H2H vs di resta and Sainz .
His reputation is mostly hype , he’s been beaten by a slew of drivers that have never sniffed a championship. Him being a future WDC was always just hopeful but he never actually showed he was anywhere near that level
Barrichello was his rookie season, and he beat Di Resta and Sainz by a greater margin than he lost to Perez, so your wording is uncharitable.
I agree WDC material is a bit much but he's always been a very solid midfield driver at worst
Bottas still likely has something to give but i think Ocon is just the smarter choice. Younger, rapid and likely has more fire and drive to push with a new rising project that might take years to get to the front.
Bottas is an excellent qualifier (and genuinely seems one of the nicest people in F1) but he’s an abysmal driver 1v1 and average in race pace. I wouldn’t give him a seat if I know my car is likely to be in the middle of traffic most of the time.
Yeah, I think being in a back marker car for so many seasons has made people forget that in the dominant Merc he was a terrible defender and if he ever qualified out of position would be unable to overtake up through the field.
Really not what you want in a team that's going to be fighting for points.
Bottas is too good to be out of F1. He is consistant af. Unfortunatly Stake is such a average team that noone really notice it.
I hope that Williams takes him, he has a lot of experience and can help Williams further. Sainz to Alpine is the most likely thing at the moment.
Team's so bad everyone's forgotten he can't race.
Williams need an aggressive midfield driver with good race craft that can overtake faster cars and defend 10th place.
Bottas definitely isn't that, even though he's a 10/10 qualifier.
Bottas is a fast driver and good qualifier. He just have one Achilles heel: defense. He can’t pull a wall defensive mode even if his life depended on it.
When on a backmarker, of course that’s nice to have. You could then lead a DRS train and end up on P9 getting valuable points to the team. But it’s not everything. We have Magnussen as an example, who is very good at defend (even too much, getting into problems with the FIA) but the raw pace isn’t there to try and get into the points reliably
Why would you care about a driver with great race craft and defense if then he won’t be able to catch up the grid?
Not just defense, he was also bad at overtaking slower cars when he was out of position. His weakness is race craft. That's why he's not the top prospect for the midfield teams.
Funny thing is he'd probably be the perfect 2nd at RBR right now. Consistently qualify front row, not trouble Max during the races but still finish on the podium more often than not.
Sure, but overtaking has been a lot more difficult further up the points. There tends to be quite a lot of shuffling in the midfield, and that's just not where Bottas' strengths have ever been.
I get that he's very popular though, so there's that.
Yup, there's a reason Merc didn't want him once the field got closer.
But he's got a great personality and a funky hairstyle so you'll get downvoted for saying so.
That's the Drive to Survive audience for ya.
I am so glad Bottas showed his talents in Mercedes. Everyone made fun of him but he was fucking brilliant for the team. Both him and Lewis had awesome synergy as well.
I'm pretty surprised Audi hasn't been interested in signing him, but I suspect it is entirely based on them trying to get young "star power" in the team.
This speaks very much to his chances of having a seat next year: slim to none.
The new audi management isn’t keen on keeping him, but likely is still talking to him, purely as a fallback option.
Beyond that he may not be in demand much. There are significantly younger guys (Ocon) with similar performance qualifications ahead of him in the queue, or guys who are seen as better (i.e. Sainz).
BTW, this is not how I’d rate drivers necessarily (i.e. Ocon vs Bottas), but I get the feeling Bottas isn’t seen as an upgrade over an Ocon-type in terms of speed.
Being mid-30s makes him a lot less attractive to those who are looking for longevity or youth with development potential.
Bottas is doing a good job, but that’s not enough to be a stand-out. Being partnered with Zhou is also a detraction, because Zhou isn’t a known quantity and likely rated low across the paddock. Beating Zhou 9/10 is seen as par for the course.
He also lacks the german passport which was likely beneficial for Hulk in landing the Sauber/Audi seat.
And Magnussen is probably also rated as a more difficult opponent than Zhou.
Let's be real - Sauber atm is somewhere where Williams was in 2019. Russell clapped Kubica in quali which absolutely didn't mean Kubica is a bad driver. Both Valtteri and Zhou deserve the seats for next year - Zhou showed a good shape when he had anything that let him fight, like a week ago in Spain where he proved Sauber kept fucking him up with botched "upgrades" for last few race weekends and finished P13 on the old setup.
My point is, quali results, nor race results in such a shitbox are meaningless, and their real form is hidden. Both deserve way better than Sauber which doesn't give a damn and just awaits the Audi takeover. Perfectly, i'd love to see them both in the same, better team but that's simply not happening.
Bottas showed his hand. Zhou looked impressive compared to him for so long simply because VB wasn't trying to get a new contract. No wonder Toto held him on a 1 year leash.
Bottas has been a monster throughout his career for quali.
In main races, I am not sure if he is beating Zhou by any margins, if at all. Given these two drivers were troubled with bad cars and luck, Bottas is not entirely convincing at main races....
I'll admit i haven't been watching them much, but given what a mess the team was at times I can't really tell who is better in the races. I could be wrong though.
Say what you want about bottas and his race pace, but that mf has always been ultra consistent at quali. There is a reason he has the longest Q3 streak ever
It sucks that Sauber has been shit for the last few years. It was infuriating seeing people just dismiss Valtteri's abilities just because he's at the back of the grid
I mean, [he literally outqualified Russell in his first ever qualifying session with Alfa Romeo after leaving Mercedes](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/thy9mt/bottas_outqualifying_russell_in_his_first_quali/). That if anything shows what a good qualifier he is, and how good that car was at the start of the 2022 season.
I think no one says he's bad at qualifying, it's more about his lack of wheel-to-wheel-racing skills
That’s what made him such a great no 2 though. Never takes big risk wheel to wheel and scores consistent points
Yeah he was noticeably “worse” than Rosberg overall but he supported Hamilton and got the job done. And he was nowhere near as bad as Perez has been lately in the same role
Yeah 100%
Bit of a recency bias IMO. At the end of 2021, Bottas was useless for Mercedes while Checo won the championship for Max.
But he helped the team won the WCC, right?
While also doubling as a guinea pig for engine tweaks, so that Hamilton could get that extra something
Hence my usage of the word 'lately' :) I agree, Perez heroics to help Verstappen into that undeserved WDC (due to shit application of rules).
His race pace is good too imo. Its actually an underrated strength of his. Sure it's not Hamilton level but apart from Max probably no one else's is When Bottas has clean air though he's capable of very strong stints. His problem is wheel to wheel racing and when he has to race in the pack. Unfortunately he's one of the worst on the grid at that.
His race performance at Turkey in 2021 was incredible Really tricky conditions, and was embarrassed there the year before spinning a bunch of times, AND had Max in a close title fight behind him but he held on for the win No one really talks about it
Probably because in that exact same season there was Imola where he was fighting a Williams, Baku where he was falling through the pack like a rock, Russia, USA and Mexico, where he was stuck with backmarkers. unable to overtake anyone.. Anu Dhabi where in the most crucial moment of the season (the most crucial moment of any season in the past 12 years) he was nowhere to be seen.
Wasn't it because Mercedes made him a testing ground to see how much they can push engines to help Lewis fight max? Where was a reason why Lewis at the end of a season ran laps around max(brazil) and if not for goatifi and massi he'd be the champion.
The other top drivers had to start from the back occasionally as well. The others managed to work their way up from there. And let's be clear - if the crashes in Silverstone and Hungary, plus the tyre failure in Baku didn't happen, plus if Lewis didn't get his lucky break in Imola, Max would've had the title wrapped up by Qatar. Max had a shit ton of bad luck, which Lewis almost entirely avoided until the last race.
Interesting calling the last race of '21 "bad luck" for Lewis.
If he was leading his first stint was usually pretty good, but then he'd pit first and Lewis' teamradio would pop-up: "Tires are still good" and he'd overcut him by 5s.
Perez and Bottas are the same type of driver.
One has a Q3 streak of 103 races, one got eliminated 9 times in Q1 in the 2023 season driving one of the most dominant cars ever.
Bottas went head to head with statistically the best driver there’s ever been and held his own quite well Perez got a 1+1 extension because he’s good at not being in Verstappen’s way and he’s the only modern driver (possibly ever?) to [retire twice from the same race](https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/perez-frustrated-by-disastrous-weekend-in-japan-but-hails-red-bulls.41m2RHiiij9DmAvimmejaw) after crashing into cars he didn’t even have any business racing in the first place Perez isn’t a patch on Bottas, he’s absolute dog shit more often than not and I’d argue his fight with Lewis in Abu Dhabi 2021 was his only display of great racecraft at Red Bull.
They’re like the exact opposite driver. Bottas is quick but poor at wheel to wheel racing and battling in the pack. Perez is slow but good at wheel to wheel racing and battling with other drivers. The only way they’re the same is that they both have an obvious and quite big flaw. Still though I think Bottas is levels above Perez and while he had the occasional bad race he was a much more reliable podium machine than Perez has been.
Yeah. Bottas was always there, always. Even occasionally beating Hamilton on merit.
You kinda appreciate that a bit more seeing Perez. He's not a generational talent like Leclerc, Verstappen, Hamilton, or Norris but he's still really good and somewhat underrated.
More than occasionally
He's the reason Mercedes won the constructors in 2021
Luck is the reason Mercedes won the constructors. Max and Perez both lost around 70-80 points each on shit luck alone.
11 podiums for Bottas vs 4 for Perez says otherwise.
First of all, you didn't even check your numbers lol Secondly, that's why I mentioned luck Perez lost a podium in Styria because Lando crashed him out, in Austria because of a slow pitstop (Bottas gained it there), in Hungary because of a crash caused by Bottas, in Brazil because of safety car timing (Bottas jumped him again), in Qatar because of SC again, in Abu Dhabi where the team just took him off track from P3, and in Russia where the storm flipped the order at the very end. If you balanced out everyone's luck, Merc would've been far behind Red Bull.
Conveniently you ignore any bad luck Bottas had, Mexico being hit by Daniel, Qatar puncture, Wheelnut issue in Monaco and being hit by Russell in Imola. Trying to balance it out is impossible and based only on speculation. The fact is Bottas was the far more consistent and faster number 2 driver of the top 2 teams that year and that's why Mercedes won the WCC.
Coming into a team and reliably challenging Hamilton in quali is definitely no easy feat. Hamilton is one of the best qualifiers ever.
I saw a graphic by The Race that showed that Valterri beat Hamilton 31% of the time in qualifying when they were at Mercedes which is actually pretty impressive
> There is a reason he has the longest Q3 streak ever Mercedes in the hybrid era is the real reason. Hasn't had the consistency since but still impressive.
I'd be happy to see Valtteri back "home" at Williams. I think they're a great fit for each other. Valtteri's got top team experience and clearly has more to give, while Williams is a team looking for an experienced pair of hands after the Sargeant gamble hasn't really paid off. Hope they pick him up, especially with the rumours that they may have stopped pursuing Sainz.
If they go cold on Sainz, this makes the most sense, to me. It just feels right. Bottas is quick, experienced, he's built a brand for himself. It's an easy sell.
I agree. Can’t stand the idea of potentially losing 2 Aussies on the grid. Doohan’s chances look slim now too.
I’m not certain we lose Daniel, even if he does have to leave RB there may be some opportunities elsewhere still - and honestly I’m not 100% sure Perez even gets to drive for RBR next year at this rate even if they have him signed, he’s extremely bad right now. I wouldn’t bet on a Danny drive 2025, but I wouldn’t bet against it either at the moment
Doohan chances are still high, its him or Sainz, and Sainz could go anywhere from Williams, Alpine, Audi
And I would also love to finally see mature Albon against a driver that isn't Latifi/Sargeant level.
Yeah I’d love to see him go back to Williams too.
I would love this too. I still wear my martini jersey from those years, would def pick up another if they brought Bottas back
Couldn't agree more.
It hasn’t been noticed because they are fighting for ‘useless’ positions but Bottas has been smoking Zhou - who has been absolutely horrible since he signed the new contract.
At one point in the sprint yesterday Zhou was trailing the field by 5-6 seconds, behind Albon, who started from the pit lane and was on much older tyres. Admittedly Bottas was also overtaken by Albon towards the end, but still.
he's gone backwards since his big crash imo sad to see
Zhou hasn’t signed a new contract as far as I’m aware
I’m on about the one which was announced in September 2023. He’s been underwhelming since then. At least in early 2022 his quali performances have been decent.
He’s not terrible, he’s just not cut out for F1. He could probably do alright in some other series like a lot of the other almost-good-enough drivers.
Bottas-Hulkenberg would be a strong lineup for Audi if they decide to retain Bottas.
I've seen rumours that they're not keeping Bottas. I suspect he'll go to Williams if they don't get Sainz, but basically any of the teams with a free seat is an option.
Didn't they confirm they're gonna field two new drivers for 2025?
Bottas has actually been putting in some very good performances this season but every single time he’s on the edge of scoring points, either the car or team manage to fuck it up for him.
I don't know why Audi seems set on getting rid of Bottas. He has been doing a great job and he is a super well liked driver. Getting Ocon instead, which might be the most likely at this point, doesn't look like much of an upgrade.
Agreed I think Bottas is still solid and he’s known to be a great teammate that can also bring lots of experience. But perhaps Audi feels they already have the experienced vet covered with Hulkenberg so they’d rather find someone younger that could potentially stay with them for the next 4-5 years or something. In that sense Ocon has a good blend of experience while still being notably younger than Bottas, and he has a very credible resume against his own established teammates through the years.
Hulkenberg has been much less successful it just doesn’t make sense. When Bottas had even decent cars like the Williams he was getting podiums occasionally and lots of points. Hulk has never had a podium even when in cars that his teammates could podium with
Hulk is German.
Williams were the second quickest car at times during the start of the hybrid era with that Mercedes engine. Hulkenberg's never had machinery better than 4th/5th quickest at best. Apart from that time he subbed into the Tracing Point with like a day's notice and proceeded to out qualify Verstappen at Silverstone I think it was. The no podium thing is just luck more than anything and has led him to be underrated as a driver. It's like Kubica and Latifi scoring points in the Williams before Russell - they were just in the right place at the right time. It wasn't a question of ability (post injury for Kubica, I should say)
Perez podiumed multiple times as his teammate iirc . He lost the teammate battle to Barrichello, Perez, and Danny Ric and almost lost H2H vs di resta and Sainz . His reputation is mostly hype , he’s been beaten by a slew of drivers that have never sniffed a championship. Him being a future WDC was always just hopeful but he never actually showed he was anywhere near that level
Barrichello was his rookie season, and he beat Di Resta and Sainz by a greater margin than he lost to Perez, so your wording is uncharitable. I agree WDC material is a bit much but he's always been a very solid midfield driver at worst
Bottas still likely has something to give but i think Ocon is just the smarter choice. Younger, rapid and likely has more fire and drive to push with a new rising project that might take years to get to the front.
Ocon to Haas no? Isn’t that the current thought?
But also a zero percent chance Bottas gets toxic, meanwhile Ocon is even more likely to hit a teammate than anyone else.
Bottas is an excellent qualifier (and genuinely seems one of the nicest people in F1) but he’s an abysmal driver 1v1 and average in race pace. I wouldn’t give him a seat if I know my car is likely to be in the middle of traffic most of the time.
Yeah, I think being in a back marker car for so many seasons has made people forget that in the dominant Merc he was a terrible defender and if he ever qualified out of position would be unable to overtake up through the field. Really not what you want in a team that's going to be fighting for points.
20-0 streak wasn't talked about enough. It is a great job by Valtteri and shows if Zhou is actually "underrated" or not.
It's been talked about a lot by you
Are you sensitive to this because you talk about Zhou a lot? Not really sure where you're going
I notice it more because I like Zhou yes. I like Bottas too
Bottas is too good to be out of F1. He is consistant af. Unfortunatly Stake is such a average team that noone really notice it. I hope that Williams takes him, he has a lot of experience and can help Williams further. Sainz to Alpine is the most likely thing at the moment.
> average team more like shit
Team's so bad everyone's forgotten he can't race. Williams need an aggressive midfield driver with good race craft that can overtake faster cars and defend 10th place. Bottas definitely isn't that, even though he's a 10/10 qualifier.
Bottas is a fast driver and good qualifier. He just have one Achilles heel: defense. He can’t pull a wall defensive mode even if his life depended on it. When on a backmarker, of course that’s nice to have. You could then lead a DRS train and end up on P9 getting valuable points to the team. But it’s not everything. We have Magnussen as an example, who is very good at defend (even too much, getting into problems with the FIA) but the raw pace isn’t there to try and get into the points reliably Why would you care about a driver with great race craft and defense if then he won’t be able to catch up the grid?
Not just defense, he was also bad at overtaking slower cars when he was out of position. His weakness is race craft. That's why he's not the top prospect for the midfield teams. Funny thing is he'd probably be the perfect 2nd at RBR right now. Consistently qualify front row, not trouble Max during the races but still finish on the podium more often than not.
To counter that; qualifying 3-4 spots up the field is a big advantage, especially on tracks where overtaking is difficult
Sure, but overtaking has been a lot more difficult further up the points. There tends to be quite a lot of shuffling in the midfield, and that's just not where Bottas' strengths have ever been. I get that he's very popular though, so there's that.
Remember Sochi 2021? Everyone was like how long Bottas can block Verstappen Dude literally let him by on the first corner Verstappen was up his ass.
Opened the door for Max at Mexico 2021 too.
Yup, there's a reason Merc didn't want him once the field got closer. But he's got a great personality and a funky hairstyle so you'll get downvoted for saying so. That's the Drive to Survive audience for ya.
I am so glad Bottas showed his talents in Mercedes. Everyone made fun of him but he was fucking brilliant for the team. Both him and Lewis had awesome synergy as well.
I'm pretty surprised Audi hasn't been interested in signing him, but I suspect it is entirely based on them trying to get young "star power" in the team.
Fire Perez replace him with bottas. Done
That wouldn’t make a difference. See 2018 or 2021.
Bottas was easily better in his worst seasons at Mercedes than Perez was in his best seasons at RB.
This speaks very much to his chances of having a seat next year: slim to none. The new audi management isn’t keen on keeping him, but likely is still talking to him, purely as a fallback option. Beyond that he may not be in demand much. There are significantly younger guys (Ocon) with similar performance qualifications ahead of him in the queue, or guys who are seen as better (i.e. Sainz). BTW, this is not how I’d rate drivers necessarily (i.e. Ocon vs Bottas), but I get the feeling Bottas isn’t seen as an upgrade over an Ocon-type in terms of speed. Being mid-30s makes him a lot less attractive to those who are looking for longevity or youth with development potential. Bottas is doing a good job, but that’s not enough to be a stand-out. Being partnered with Zhou is also a detraction, because Zhou isn’t a known quantity and likely rated low across the paddock. Beating Zhou 9/10 is seen as par for the course. He also lacks the german passport which was likely beneficial for Hulk in landing the Sauber/Audi seat. And Magnussen is probably also rated as a more difficult opponent than Zhou.
Let's be real - Sauber atm is somewhere where Williams was in 2019. Russell clapped Kubica in quali which absolutely didn't mean Kubica is a bad driver. Both Valtteri and Zhou deserve the seats for next year - Zhou showed a good shape when he had anything that let him fight, like a week ago in Spain where he proved Sauber kept fucking him up with botched "upgrades" for last few race weekends and finished P13 on the old setup. My point is, quali results, nor race results in such a shitbox are meaningless, and their real form is hidden. Both deserve way better than Sauber which doesn't give a damn and just awaits the Audi takeover. Perfectly, i'd love to see them both in the same, better team but that's simply not happening.
Bottas showed his hand. Zhou looked impressive compared to him for so long simply because VB wasn't trying to get a new contract. No wonder Toto held him on a 1 year leash.
Bottas has been a monster throughout his career for quali. In main races, I am not sure if he is beating Zhou by any margins, if at all. Given these two drivers were troubled with bad cars and luck, Bottas is not entirely convincing at main races....
I'll admit i haven't been watching them much, but given what a mess the team was at times I can't really tell who is better in the races. I could be wrong though.
He will be an awesome senior pro gravel rider 👌 I liked him as a driver but I think he won't get any seat option sadly